climate

Usually a beehive of well-dressed, black-berried staffers, reporters and lobbyists, Capitol Hill was noticeably calmer last week. Many Congressional staffers came to work in jeans, flip flops and other small but significant signals that August recess is upon us.

Amid this calm before the storm of the fall legislative calendar, one drumbeat was consistent as I visited office after office last week in my role as policy advisor for climate change for The Wilderness Society: the phones have not stopped ringing.

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You know about the contributions deforestation makes toward global warming, but now some scientists are asking the seemingly counter-intuitive question of whether harvesting timber can actually help decrease greenhouse gas emissions.

No doubt, the premise is appealing: Use the forests to soak up carbon dioxide from the air, then store that carbon dioxide elsewhere by harvesting the timber and turning it into home-building materials and other wood products. As new trees grow in the harvested area, the cycle begins again.

It can help your cholesterol problems, is a healthy source of protein, contains essential oils, and has even been dubbed “brain food” — and your ability to buy it will be impacted by the effects global warming has on a state many of us will never be lucky enough to visit.

Yes, I’m talking about seafood — and yes, much of our seafood comes from Alaska.

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As summer enters its “Dog Days”, scientific evidence on the impacts of global warming continues to mount. Yet, even after a major win in the House of Representatives, the fight for clean energy and new American jobs faces an uphill battle in the Senate — where well-funded and powerful special interests are hard at work trying to keep us tied to a dirty past.

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The June passage of climate and energy legislation by the House of Representatives demonstrated that America’s leaders are ready to move our nation forward to a secure clean energy future. They passed the American Clean Energy and Security Act (H.R. 2454), a bill that will create jobs, reduce the global warming pollution that threatens our nation’s security and our children’s future, protect our treasured landscapes, invest in clean, new energy technologies, and make polluters pay.

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Winston Churchill would have applauded the effort of the legions of Wilderness Society voices who contacted the U.S. Congress in favor of action on the American Clean Energy and Security Act (H.R. 2454 — the Waxman-Markey energy and climate bill), which won a hard-fought victory in the U.S. House of Representatives this evening.

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The House of Representatives made history today by passing the American Clean Energy and Security Act (H.R. 2454), a bill sponsored by Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.). Bill Meadows, President of The Wilderness Society, released this statement upon passage of the bill.